However, no-one could accuse the Astor family of being under-reported, what with them being billionaires and everything. They started in the fur trade.

John Jacob Astor IV went down with the Titanic, although his 18-year-old wife, who was pregnant, survived. The English branch of the Astors gave saucy parties at their house, Cliveden, at one of which John Profumo met Christine Keeler. Shy the Astors ain't.

And now there is a court case pending in New York over the neglect of the former socialite, Brooke Astor, who is aged 104. This is going to be a humdinger of a case. The accused, Anthony Marshall, Mrs Astor's son by her first marriage, is a former CIA officer and Broadway producer who pays himself $2.3m per year to administer her estate. The witnesses for the prosecution include Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller. The alternative guardian proposed for Mrs Astor is Annette de la Renta, wife of the fashion designer, Oscar de la Renta.

The case is being brought by Mrs Astor's grandson, Philip Marshall, against his own father. The charges are that Mrs Astor is being neglected because Anthony Marshall wishes to save money on the cost of her care.

On the one hand this is interesting because abuse of the elderly conjures up images of powerless (and therefore poor) old people, kept in shabby and understaffed nursing homes and restrained in nightmare appliances such as Buxton chairs. (Dear, dear, I wonder where those images could have come from? ) In other words, old people who have never had any money or who have been forced to abandon whatever financial assets they once possessed in exchange for not being thrown out in the snow. We all know that, in a capitalist society, once you give up your rung on the financial ladder you are at the mercy of the Fates.

We do not think of rich old people being abused. Deserted, abandoned and lonely perhaps, but abused, no. Shelley said that gold is the old man's sword, but in this Shelley may have been mistaken.

Brooke Astor gave away more than $100 million, which is an awful lot of gold, whichever way you look at it. She is one of only 33 people to have been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honour for an American civilian, and frightfully expensive if the price Brooke Astor paid for it is anything to go by.

Some of the matters mentioned in the court papers filed by her grandson may seem laughable to those of us who are card-carrying members of the hoipolloi. She is down to one manicure per month. She was denied a new dress for her 104th birthday. It is said that her favoured Estee Lauder cosmetics have been replaced by Vaseline and budget brands (Brooke, that happened to the rest of us years ago). My particular favourite is that her French chef has been replaced by "an unmotivated cook".

However, it is rather more serious to allege that Mrs Astor, who has already suffered a broken hip, was denied a bed with protective rails. That her bedroom is so cold that she sleeps on the couch in the living room. That she was not allowed the non-slip socks that she requires. That she is not allowed to see her beloved dogs, or go to the mansion where she wishes to die.

What a picture of mean-minded misery! Brooke Astor may have been a wonderful mother to Anthony Marshall . . .

wonderful parents do end up being treated in this way by their wealthy adult children. Anthony Marshall, in his turn, may have been a wonderful father to his son, Philip Marshall, who is currently taking him to court. But, then again, maybe not.

All we know for certain is that they were terribly rich. As Bob Marley said to his son when he was dying "Money don't buy life".